Quote:
Originally Posted by koop
Moneyball was about finding value in the market for baseball players.... so it wasn't that defense wasn't important, just that it was overvalued (at the time at least). Same with OBP or closers, moneyball talked about both and it wasn't that the A's thought closers weren't important and OBP was all that mattered, it was just that closers were overvalued and OBP was undervalued. I think a lot of people misunderstand that book, it's really just about finding value to gain a competitive advantage, and that means just as much now as it ever did. It's just harder to do now that every team uses advanced statistics.
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Yeah I know all that - I've just made one too many of those "moneyball isn't about OBP, it's about market inefficiency posts" in the past to do it again.
I would agree that defense was over-valued by other teams, but at the time the sabermetrics community pretty much agreed that defense played a much, much less significant role than hitting or pitching. I guess that's sort of saying the same thing, but it is important as if Billy Beane had the sort of defensive metrics we have now, he likely wouldn't have perceived a market inefficiency in those big bats with poor gloves type of player.